Blues hoping for bigger Redmond bids

Birmingham City manager Lee Clark is still hoping to receive a £3 million bid for Nathan Redmond as he reluctantly accepts the sale of key players to save the club from financial turmoil.

Nathan Redmond is attracting plenty of interest from the Premier League

Clark has already seen Birmingham’s 2012-13 Player of the Year Curtis Davies sold to Hull City for £2.25 million, and has revealed the club have accepted bids of £2.5 million from Norwich City and Swansea City for Redmond.

The England Under-21 international looks certain to be the next asset stripped from Clark's squad due to the financial worries at St Andrew’s, but the Blues boss wants to maximise the value of a player who came through the ranks at the club.

Fulham are understood to have made an offer of £2 million for the winger which has been rejected, and are weighing up whether to increase their bid, while Everton and West Bromwich Albion have also expressed an interest in signing the 19-year-old.

There appear to be a number of other sides in the hunt for Redmond too after Clarke told the Birmingham Mail that there are "six to eight Premier League clubs interested".

Clarke added: “We have had three bids. Two have been accepted and one has not been accepted. And now it’s up to Nathan if he wants to speak to those two clubs and see if it’s right for him. What those other clubs who have not placed bids yet have to do is to get to the level where the other two are at."

The financial problems at Birmingham mean Clark has had his hands tied in the transfer market, restricting him to mostly free transfers and loan signings.

But according to Clark, selling Redmond and Davies is necessary to enable the club to continue.

"It’s another one where you don’t want to lose the player, but you understand the reasons why he has to go,” he said. "I have spoken to Nathan at length. In an ideal world he would be with me this season - so would Curtis, but we know that isn’t the scenario. We have to get the best deal to keep Birmingham City going.

"The bottom line is that the most important people in all of this are the fans. We have got to make sure the club is still there for them and whatever you have got to do to make that happen, you have got to do it."

Clark is hoping to bring in Swansea defender Kyle Bartley on loan to offset the loss of Davies.

Bartley, 22, signed for the Swans a year ago from Arsenal for around £1 million, but made only five appearances for Michael Laudrup’s side last season.